Transit Oriented Development, Making it Happen is a book about realizing the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the United States and Australia. Edited by John Renne and Carey Curtis, this book contains a chapter by Reconnecting America staff members Shelley Poticha and Jeff Wood entitled Transit Oriented for All: Delivering Mixed Income Housing in Transit Served Neighborhoods.

A new book published by academic research publisher Ashgate entitled "Transit Oriented Development: Making it Happen" includes a chapter written by Reconnecting America's CEO Shelley Poticha and Jeff Wood, a program associate with Reconnecting America and the organization's GIS specialist.

Changing demographics and housing preferences as well as concerns about quality of life are boosting the demand for walkable urbanism and transit-oriented development in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region as elsewhere in the U.S. The Twin Cities’ real estate market must be able to provide for this demand in order to preserve the region’s economic competitiveness, but a recent study by the Brookings Institution found the Twin Cities ranked below average in the number of “regionally significant walkable places.” Brookings found only two such existing places – the downtowns in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Changing demographics and housing preferences as well as concerns about quality of life are boosting the demand for walkable urbanism and transit-oriented development in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region as elsewhere in the U.S. The Twin Cities’ real estate market must be able to provide for this demand in order to preserve the region’s economic competitiveness, but a recent study by the Brookings Institution found the Twin Cities ranked below average in the number of “regionally significant walkable places.” Brookings found only two such existing places – the downtowns in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Featuring Joseph Schilling, Virginia Tech Metropolitan Center Joseph Schilling leads the Metropolitan Institute's Green Regions Initiative. He also provides communities with policy guidance in such areas as vacant property revitalization, brownfields redevelopment, smart growth, and zoning code reform. Previously, Schilling directed the community and economic development programs for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) focusing on local governments and the intersection of land use laws and policies as they relate to smart growth and the community revitalization

Executive Summary
By 2013, King County Metro Transit’s bus rapid transit (BRT) service, known as RapidRide, will be expanding to six lines covering 64 miles of high-use corridors. The Bus Rapid Transit and Land Use Initiative is the product of a partnership between ULI Seattle, King County Metro Transit, the city of Se­attle, the city of Shoreline, and the ULI/Curtis Regional Infrastructure Project. The partnership formed a team of ULI members and transit professionals to analyze and make recommendations about connecting RapidRide and land use opportunities. The team developed case studies of similar BRT service in other cities and ana­lyzed three station areas in Seattle and Shoreline.
From the perspectives of multimodal corridors, neighborhood design, housing, jobs/workers, market­ing, and stakeholders, the team developed specific recommendations for RapidRide and initiative partners, as well as recommendations for each station area. Three overarching themes emerged:
Focus on…

Blogosphere - In this section you'll find commentary, opinion and editorials from blogs and newspapers around the country. The opinions expressed in these blogs do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Reconnecting America.
TRANSPORT
Blogosphere: Zipcar vs Car2Go
Seattle Transit Blog
I've been a ZipCar member for 8 years, beginning in Boston in the pre-smartphone era in which I would (gasp!) call in to find available cars...

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Blogosphere: Reform, Don't Devolve, Federal Role
Transportation Issues Daily
Everyone wants to change the federal government's role in transportation, and can be grouped into two categories: devolutionists and reformers. Fiscal pressures along with a lack of focus since the…